In 1987, my staff college syndicate from the Bundeswehr’s Führungsakademie flew to London to spend 10 days at the British Army’s Command and Staff College in Camberley. The British students were outstanding hosts, treating us warmly and even taking us to watch a West End theatre production. A couple of us re-acquainted ourselves with some of the officers whom we had met when they came to Franconia earlier for a week-long terrain walk and unbelievably, this immigrant kid from downtown Toronto even got to inspect the cavalry troop after the changing of the Household Cavalry Guard when they came off parade at Buckingham Palace (now that is a story!).

There is an axiom that you can learn as much from your adversaries as you can from your friends and the real reason for our visit, a major command post exercise (EX KNIGHTS CROSS) conducted by the staff college, afforded us many such opportunities. My Directing Staff took me aside upon arrival at the college and asked if I would mind working on the British staff rather than with my German classmates. At first I was a bit offended, thinking that my DS was palming me off, but he assured me that was not the case and said that he thought I might enjoy speaking “tactical English” for a week. Then he pointed out that I had been diligent in absorbing German tactical and operational doctrine and that this might be an opportunity for the British students to pick up a few “pointers” (Hinweise). He grinned at me and I saw that he was paying me a deep compliment.

Like almost all my exercise positions during two years in Hamburg, I was to be the Div G3 (chief of operations), but this time of the fictional 1 BR Armd Div. I introduced myself to my staff and immediately joined up with the Div G2 (chief of intelligence). I made some suggestions, and we soon had the HQ reorganized and humming with Teutonic efficiency (much to the annoyance of his British DS and much to the delight of my German DS — that is another story!).

The Allied Corps consisted of 1^st (GE) Panzer Div, 1^st (BR) Armd Div and 1^st (US) Armd Div (Leavenworth had also sent students to the CPX). We were in the defence preparing to defend England’s south coast from a Fantasian combined seaborne/airborne invasion, which duly came. The British student enemy commander almost immediately “knocked us for six.” We Brits were in the centre and the weakest division. We immediately fell back more than 10 kms. The British student Corps commander, concerned that our front line now had gaps and we were at risk of penetration on both flanks of the BR division, ordered the two flanking divisions to give ground and reform the front line. The US student was unhappy, but he conceded. The German, my brother Panzeraufklärer (armd cavalryman) refused, and soon a loud shouting match developed in the corridor outside the command posts. I was asked to mediate but my German comrade was adamant that it was nonsensical to freely give up ten kms of terrain without a fight. The DS intervened, and I won’t go into the lessons that both the US and BR students learned that day from my German comrades about fighting the manoeuvre battle.

Flash forward to last week. The American president proudly signed an executive order on January 7, 2026, unilaterally withdrawing the United States from 66 international organizations, treaties, and conventions, thereby ceding all that America had gained from being on those committees, bodies and organizations and handing America’s adversaries, enemies and antagonists free rein to do as they pleased in those organizations. China did not leave. India did not leave. Russia did not leave. America, the strongest member of each of those organizations, folded its tent and left.

I’m sure there were champagne corks popping across E Europe and Asia all weekend.

This was yet another self-inflicted wound by an administration that does not believe that it has anything to learn or anything to gain from working with others, some of whom may not agree completely with their policies.